Structure and Change in the Field of Mid-Twentieth Century Human Scientists in Sweden

Abstract

Geometric data analysis (GDA) is a generally accepted method for empirical investigations of the structures of social fields. Building on recent developments among scholars who combine the concepts of capital and field with GDA, this chapter contributes to this literature by analysing stability and change in the structure of the field of mid-twentieth century human scientists in Sweden. It does so by using a prosopography of all human scientists who held some kind of position at Swedish universities and university colleges in 1945 and 1965, comparing the structures of the field at these two points in time. A specific multiple correspondence analysis is used to explore the distribution of career patterns and resources in the human sciences, conceived of as a relatively autonomous subsystem of the university field and the scientific field. This period saw an increasing number of people and disciplines being established at universities and university colleges. Results suggest that the main differentiating principle in this field (having more or fewer accumulated resources) remained stable whereas individual researchers shifted positions over time as they accumulated more resources. These patterns of structural stability and individual mobility can often be presumed when comparing two cross-sections at two separate points in time, at least when the individual properties being compared are indicators of resources one accumulates over time.